PaOPEETT OF THE 
HBliRY OF C0(m}12SS 



AN ADDRESS 



POPULAR EDUCATION, 



DELIVERED AT THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY 



OF THE 



PENNINGTON MALE SEMINARY, 



PENNINGTON, NEW-JERSEY, 



JULY 21sT, 184L 



BY WILLIAM H. ALLEN, A.M. 

PROFESSOR OP CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY ISf 
DICKINSON COLLEGE. 



TRENTON. 

JUSTICE & MILLS, 
Printers. 



184L 



Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of the Visiting Committee and 
Board of Trustees, of the Pennington Male Seminary, be given to Professor 
Allen, for the able and eloquent Address delivered by him, on the 21st of 
July; and that he be lequested to furnish a copy for publication. 

The Committee tender to Professor Allen their profound respect 

ABSALOM BLACHLY, ( rnmmJH«» 
HENRY P. WELLING, { Committee. 



Gentlemen : 

The Address, which you have been pleased to notice in so partial and 
friendly a manner, is at your disposal. 

Be pleased, gentlemen, to accept for yourselves and for those whom yoia 
represent, assurances of the cordial esteem and respect of 

Your obedient servant, 

W. H. ALLEN 






cc 






'QlNTLBMHN OF THE BOARD OP TRUSTEES 

AND Visiting Committee — 

At this first anniversary of the Pennington Male Seminary, it 
is fit that you and the friends and teachers of the Institution, here pre- 
sent, should feel an honest exultation in witnessing the auspicious re- 
sults of your efforts and labors. Nothing great or useful has ever been 
accomplished without toil and sacrifice; and the establishment and 
organization of a Seminary of learning, even in the most favorable 
circumstances, are no exception to this general remark. Its pro- 
jectors must possess the wisdom to devise, and the energy to exe- 
/*! cute — the sagacity to foi^feee dificulties, the courage to meet them, 
and the perseverance to overcome them —the tact to remove preju- 
dice and conciliate friendship, and the skill to baffle opposition, and 
disarm hostility. Money must be had; and in the midst of public 
bankruptcy and private distress, the collection of funds requisite to 
place an Institution of learning on a secure basis, and in an efficient 
state, is not among the least of the embarrassments which attend the 
enterprise. Teachers must be had ; and when so many employments 
more congenial to most minds, and offering more ample pecimiary 
rewards, are inviting the talents of the country, it is not always easy 
to command the services of enterprising, active and competent men. 
All these difficulties you have encountered, these obstacles you have 
overcome; and here, with the fruits of your labors before you and 
around you ; a substantial edifice in which to conduct your opera- 
tions; able instructors who know their duties, and delight to per- 
form them; a goodly number of youthful students who have given, 
in an interesting and well-sustained examination, convincing proofs 
of their own ability and industry, and of the zeal and faithfulness 
of their preceptors; — in the midst of these evidences of your suc- 
cess, allow me to congratulate you, that through your instlCimen- 
tality, a Seminary of learning has been established heref which 
is destined to become an ornament to your State, and a blessing to 
the community. 

I know not how I could discharge my duty to you, and to the 



audience assembled on this occasion, in a more appropriate manner, 
than by offering some thoughts on the diffusive tendency of educa- 
tion in our country, and on the social and political advantages of 
an elevated standard of popular instruction. 

By education, I do not mean that knowledge exclusively which 
is acquired at school, but that training of the intellectual and moral 
powers, wheresoever and howsoever obtained, which refines a 
man's tastes, enlarges his views, elevates his ideas, and enables him 
to think consecutively, reason correctly, and act properly, in the 
affairs and conduct of life. In this sense of the word, a man may 
have an excellent education, though he may never have been at 
school; and a very defective education, though he may have gradu- 
ated at college. By study, and by study alone, can a good educa- 
tion be acquired. It would be absurd, however, to infer that schools 
are useless, because it is possible for a man to educate himself 
without them. As well might you destroy your rail roads, because 
men can travel without them. Schools are facilities for travelling 
on the highway of knowledge, and the more rapid, cheap, and easy 
the conveyance, the more numerous will be the passengers. 

The United States have not, like France, Holland, and Prussia, 
a national system of instruction ; and the State governments have 
done little more than establish and support primary schools. Liberal 
appropriations have indeed occasionally been made for the endow- 
ment of Academies and Colleges ; but those institutions are not 
usually under the direction of the State authorities, but are controlled 
by boards possessing corporate powers. No State has a uniform 
and well-arranged system of public instruction, controlled in all its 
departments by the public authority; This, which at first view 
appears so defective in our State policy, is doubtless more in accor- 
dance with our ideas of liberty, and with the genius of our institu- 
tions, than the systems which prevail in Europe. In Prussia, every 
child from seven to fourteen years of age, is compelled by law to 
attend the public schools. In this country men are so jealous of 
their freedom, they do not like to be driven to promote even their 
own interests. Many a citizen of this Republic would deem it a 
serious invasion of his inalienable rights, were he obliged to send 
his children to a certain school, or, indeed, to any school. In Prus- 
sia, the schools are a part of the government, and the teachers, of 
every '*grade, from the heads of the Universities downward, are 
officers'^ of the government, appointed by the public authority, 
responsible to it, removable by it, and paid from the public treasury. 
It is obvious that such a system, wielded with energy by a stable 
aad despotic monarchy, and constantly directed to the support of 



the government, and the maintenance of the existing order of things, 
would lose its efficiency in the conflicts of opinion and the triumph 
and defeat of parties, which incessantly agitate our country. Who 
among us would desire to see our schools the engines of political 
strife, and our teachers the brawlers of a dominant faction, to be 
rewarded while it holds the power, and displaced at its fall. In 
Prussia, the government directs, through the censors of the press, 
xvhat works shall be published; and through the ministers of pub- 
lic instruction, what books shall be used in the schools, ft is need- 
less to say that in this country, the minority would never submit to 
have doctrines, which they abhor, as injurious, false and wicked, 
instilled into the minds of their children by the power of an unscru- 
pulous and transient majority. 

Where then are we to look for that active, diffusive principle, 
under whose operation Seminaries, and Colleges, and Universities 
are springing into life in every section of our country ? How comes 
it that here, unsustained by the patronage find power of govern- 
ment, the means of acquiring a better education than the elementary 
schools can furnish, are placed within the reach of almost every 
youth of the Republic who desires to use them? The solution of 
this question is to be found in that spirit of combination, to which 
various and adverse religious opinions here give birth. I am aware 
that the word, sectarianism, is alarming to some, odious to others. 
In the minds of many, it is synonymous with all that is selfish in 
purpose, malignant in spirit, vindictive in action. Such men take 
narrow views. Blind to the great good, they grow pale and shud- 
der at the little evil, which their diseased optics have magnified. 
They forget, that in the present order of the Divine government, 
good and evil are always associated; that it is often impossible to 
distinguish the true from the apparent; and that, in the progress of 
human society, the greatest good has often sprung from seeming ill. 
The truth is, the sects are doing that to instruct and elevate the 
popular mind in this country, which government has never effected 
elsewhere, and which no other cause could have eflfected here. 
What possible combinations of men, on other than religious 
interests, could have shown such firmness of purpose, such union 
of effort, such economy of expense, and such energy of action, as 
have characterized those sects which have been foremost in the 
cause of education in this country? 

When learning revived in Europe after the dark ages, the human 
mind, like a giant roused from slumber, conscious of its strength, 
and indignant at its long subjugation, exhibited the energy of a con- 
queror, though something of the ferocity of a savage. Time passed; 



and the governments of Europe, observing that armed men wers 
springing up to overthrow them, from the seeds which daring philo- 
sophers had scattered in the intellectual soil, prudently resolved to 
cultivate that soil for themselves; and if dragon's teeth must be 
sown, to enlist the earth-born warriors on their own side. Hence 
originated that alliance between government and learning, which is 
so close and strong in Germany ; that union of school and state, 
which is a firmer bulwark to their institutions than all the cannon 
ever cast, than all the bayonets ever burnished. Just such an alli- 
ance, but for higher and nobler purposes, religion and learning are 
forming in the United States; and while every church looks to its 
schools as the nurseries of champions to step forth in its defence on 
the arena of controversy, the schools owe to the churches their 
power to disseminate knowledge, and make it accessible to the 
masses of the population. Each sect has had the sagacity to dis- 
cover, that its influence on the next age will depend on the educa- 
tion of its youth in the present; and while each has its own schools, 
and manages them with a view to its own interests, no single sys- 
tem of doctrines in philosophy, politics, or religion, can so far gain 
ascendency over all others, as to put in jeopardy the public good. 
A healthy activity of mind is kept alive by this clashing of rival 
opinions and interests; the spirit of investigation is developed, 
which, once awakened, extends itself ^ . ward and . Qn . w»rd < to every 
subject within the grasp of intellect; new combinations of beauty 
and utility spring from the effervescence and fermentation of discor- 
dant elements; and the national mind, quickened into motion by the 
force of a pervading and resistless attraction, leaps forward with 
strong impulse in the career of improvement. 

Another advantage resulting from the union of schools and 
churches, and which tends to the diffusion of knowledge, is the ces- 
sation of hostilities between religion and philosophy. There was a 
time when the churchman regarded every philosopher as an infidel; 
and the philosopher, every churchman as a bigot. The church took 
alarm at the discoveries of science, lest they should overthrow its 
dogmas; and philosophy assailed the church as the most formidable 
enemy to the progress of truth. The sympathies of men being 
arrayed on the side of the church, science was retarded by the 
policy of the learned, and the prejudices of the ignorant. Mr. 
Whewell, in his History of the Inductive Sciences, relates that 
Augustin denied there are inhabitants on the opposite side of the 
earth, ''because no such race is recorded in scripture among the 
descendants of Adam!" "When a certain philosopher was reported 
to Boniface, Archbishop of MentZ;. as holding the existence of Anti- 



podes, the Prelate was shocked by the assumption, as it seemed to 
bim, of a world of human beings, out of the reach of the conditions 
of salvation ; and application was made to the Pope for a censure of 
the holder of this dangerous doctrine."* Through dread of the 
denunciations of the Hierarchy, Copernicus did not publish his sys- 
tem of Astronomy till he came to his death-bed; and Gallileo was 
imprisoned in the Inquisition for believing that the earth moves 
round the sun, and not (he sun round the earth. But men have now 
learned that "the same God who made the Bible made the world;" 
and that the truths of nature confirm those of revelation, with 
proofs too convincing to be resisted. Religion and knowledge, foes 
no longer, but confederated in an alliance, which mutual assistance 
continually strengthens, now work together for the same end — the 
welfare of mankind. Prejudice no longer drives men away from 
the open gates of science, but religion stands at her portals, and 
invites them to enter. 

We may further observe the diffusive tendency of education in 
our Republic, by contrasting it with the exclusive systems of the 
ancients. Among the Egyptians, learning was confined to the 
priests and high functionaries of state, and the mysteries of science 
were shrouded from the people with scrupulous care, and an im- 
penetrable veil. In Persia, only the sons of the best families were 
admitted to the public institutions. Among the Athenians, the most 
wise and acute people of antiquity, the philosophers kept the learn- 
ing which they esteernn^most valuable, imprisoned in the schools 
which they established, a profound secret to the uninitiated. And 
while Poetry, Eloquence, Philosophy, and Art shed a glory over the 
^Athenian name, and kindled a light which has shone upon the path 
of man even to our times, multitudes of the Athenian populace 
could neither read nor write. The reproof of Alexander of Mace- 
don to his Tutor, is a good illustration of the exclusive spirit which 
prevailed among the learned of Greece. While the hero was pur- 
suing his conquests in the east, Aristotle published his Physical 
Lectures. " You have not done well," thus writes to him Alexan- 
der, "You have not done well in publishing these lectures ; for how 
shall we, your pupils, excel other men, if you make that public to all, 
which we have learned from you." No less characteristic of the 
age is the reply of the great preceptor: " My lectures are published 
and not published ~ they will be intelligible to those who heard them, 
and to none beside." Juvenal satirized the Roman populace for 
desiring only two things — " bread and games ;" and perhaps the 
justice of the invective is a sufficient proof how low were the tastes, 

*See History of the Indactive Sciences, vol. 1. p. 256. 



8 

how degrading the pleasures, and how defective t!ie education of 
the masses of society at Ron:ie Yet these were the countrymen 
of Cicero, and Virgil, and Pliny, and Tacitus. During the middle 
ages, the cloister of the monk retained within its recesses the learn- 
ing of antiquity; and while the secluded devotee guarded well the 
sacred flame which was one day to illumine the world, he took good 
heed that no ray of its light should escape beyond the walls of its 
prison. 

With us, on the contrary, all that is known is published, and 
all who are willing to read, may learn and profit by it. Secrets are 
unpopular. The misers of knowledge are no longer permitted to 
lock up their treasures and brood over them, selfishly and alone. 
Our maxim is, he that hath aught to saj'- or do, which can benefit 
man, let him say and do it; rewarded or unrewarded, let him not 
withhold; for what is one man's interest or ease, compared with 
the interests of the human race] 

Again : let us mark the diff"usive tendency of education in 
America, in contrast with what may be called the centralizing sys- 
tems of modern Europe. In Russia, all art, and refinement, and 
wealth, and science are concentrated at St. Petersburg; and while 
the families of rank in that city enjoy every facility for instruction 
and improvement, the vast territories of the empire grope in Cim- 
merian darkness. The University of Berlin is the focus of light 
and intelligence in Prussia; and though other bright points scatter 
their rays over the kingdom, their light is obscured by the superior 
splendor of the great central luminary. In France, every thing 
gravitates towards Paris. Annihilate the capital, and if any France 
remained, it would be no such France as that which now excite^^ 
the admiration of the world. In England, the Universities of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge are regarded as the great repositories of learn- 
ing, the fountains of philosophy, the arbiters of letters, without 
whose seal and sanction new discoveries have no passport to 
notice, and merit no herald to fame. 

The eflfect of all this, is to establish an aristocracy of learning, 
whose members guard the entrenchments which surround them 
with Argus vigilance, against the access of every intruder; and 
who lord it over the empire of mind with despotic sway. 

But here, every section of the country has its own literary insti- 
tution, which acknowledges no supremacy in others, no inferiority 
in itself Here no great University claims to be the autocrat of the 
national mind ; nor arrogates to itself the sole dispensation of lite- 
rary honors ; nor gathers around itself all the eminent scholars of 
the country. No central luminary eclipses all others by its over- 



powering brightness; but a hundred radiant points, less intense 
indeed, but more genial and salutary, throw a uniform and cheer- 
ful light over every part of the land. The European system makes 
more profound scholars ; ours, a greater number. The one elevates 
the few far above the heads of the many ; the other exalts the many 
by raising all to a higker level. The one places the highest acade- 
mical honors beyond the reach of the poor ; the other, not only 
offers the prize to all who will make an effort to attain it, but also 
invites and encourages them to come up and take it. In Europe, 
who has ever heard of a penniless youth, without friends and with- 
out assistance, carving his own way to the honors of a University T 
In America, the thing is so common as hardly to attract attention. 
Need I tell you how, under our diffusive, economical, democratic 
system, the New England boy, without money, but with a fearless 
heart and a busy brain, works his way through college to stations 
of honor and influence? At the age of eighteen, he has received a 
good English education in the free schools. He desires more. Per- 
haps the undefined aspirations of conscious genius struggle in his 
soul. Having toiled during the summer at some manual labor, in 
autumn he repairs to an academy and qualifies himself to teach a 
common school during the winter. With the fifty dollars earned 
by his three months services, he returns to the academy, pays the 
expenses incurred in the fall, and resumes his studies. In the sum- 
mer he goes to work again to pay for his spring quarter at the aca- 
demy. Thus he continues alternately studying, and teaching, and 
working, till at the age of twenty-one, with fifty dollars in his 
pocket, he enters college. He can now teach schools of a higher 
grade, -four months in each year, and keeping pace with his class by 
extra study, at the age of twenty-five he graduates with honor, two 
or three hundred dollars in debt. With ample experience in teach- 
ing, acquired by a long apprenticeship in the common schools, he is 
now employed as a tutor in the academy which seven years before 
he entered as a pupil. At the end of another year he is free from 
debt, and prepared to study any profession, or enter upon any 
career of life to which inclination or duty may lead. With a hardi- 
hood of frame, which youthful toil has produced; habits of economy, 
which poverty has made necessary; a self-reliance, which a series 
of successful efforts, originating with himself and directed by him- 
self, has nourished ; a spirit of enterprise, innate and indomitable, 
whose field is the world ; a courage, that no obstacles can daunt ; 
a fertility of resources, that no emergency can surprise; and a per- 
severance, that no labor can appal, he goes forth into the world *'/a 
find, or to make a way^ Can such a man faill No — he cannot 



10 

iail. He knows himseK; and trusting in Crod, and in tiie powers 
which God has given him, "he dares to do all that may become a 
man." 

Let us now proceed to the second part of the proposed subject-. 
the social and political advantages of an elevated standard of popu- 
lar education. By popular education is meant, the education of 
those who toil with their hands, in distinction from that of those 
who toil with their heads. The latter is frequently called a liberal 
education, and perhaps the term is not misapplied, if we mean only 
to contrast it with the former, which, in truth, is illiberal enough. 
That will be a glorious day for our Republic, when the education of 
every man, whatever is to be his occupation, shall be liberal. The 
opinion extensively prevails, that the elements taught in the pri- 
mary schools, are all that can be necessary or useful to the farmer 
and mechanic. The father who destines his son to succeed him on 
his farm or in his shop, fears to give him a thorough scientific edu- 
cation, lest the boy's head should be turned ; lest he should become 
too lazy to work, and too proud for his business. But all observa- 
tion teaches, that the more learned a man becomes, the less proud 
he is; and that the toil required to gain knowledge, is a poor nurse 
of indolence. It is the pretenders to learning, who are proud; and 
tlie ignorant, who are lazy. Besides, the respectability of an occu- 
pation depends not so much on itself, as on the character and intel- 
ligence of those who pursue it. There is no nobler employment 
than his, who tills the soil for the sustenance of the human race; 
no man is more useful than he who fabricates those articles, and 
executes those works, which conduce to the security, the conve- 
nience, and the comfort of his species. Let these classes of our 
citizens have but a good education, and they would instantly take 
their rightful position, in the highest ranks of influence, honor, and 
power. 

But even admitting, what is by no means certain, that it is impos- 
sible for the laboring classes to be as well instructed as the profes- 
sional, it by no means follows that their education should be 
neglected ; and that no efforts should be made to improve it. Tiiere 
is more point than truth in the oft quoted couplet of Pope, 
" A little learning is a dangerous thing-, 
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring." 

If a little learning is dangerous, it is dangerous not because it isr 
learning, but because it is so little. How much more dangerous 
then is no learning at all ! Who would refuse a good thing, because 
he could not have as much of it as he desired? The wise man 
would say, if I cannot have all I would, I will take what I can. 



11 

Every step of advancement in l<^arning is so much gain. Though 
a man may not hope to reach the summit of the hill of science, 
where the beauty of a vast region delights his extended vision, 
shall he remain forever at the bottom of the deep valley of igno- 
rance, his view circumscribed on all sides, and the light of day shut 
out by impervious barriers'! Let him rather ascend as high as he 
can, and gain all the light he can, and look forth as far as he can, 
over the boundless universe of God. ^ 

In a report recently made to the British Parliament, containing 
details of the testimony given before a committee by the propri- 
etor of a manufacturing establishment on the continent, in which 
are employed from six to nine hundred workmen from the different 
nations of Europe, are found some interesting and instructive state- 
' ments relating to the beneficial effects of popular education. As an 
abstract of this report is before the public, I will only state, in the 
briefest manner, the conclusions which may be drawn from it. It 
appears — 

1st. That the operatives who are well educated, are more econo- 
mical in their expenditures than the uneducated. While the former 
live well and save money, the latter live poorly, and spend all their 
wages. 

2d. Though skill in anyparticular department of work, depends 
on experience and practical dexterity, the ability to conform to cir- 
cumstances, and adapt themselves to new methods and new work, 
depends on the cultivation of the mind. In other words, the igno- 
rant man can move without mistake only in the beaten track in 
which he has always walked; the educated can follow successfully 
any direction given him, and often is able to strike out a new path 
for himself. The former is a machine; the latter a thinking being. 
3d. The educated have a self-respect, which induces them to 
avoid the vulgar habits and debasing pleasures of the ignorant, and 
seek to secure the esteem of the higher classes, and to elevate 
themselves in society. They have a sense of honor — a love of 
character — a regard for their reputation, which make them wor- 
thier citizens and better men. 

4th. While the ignorant bring up their children in filth, idleness, 
vulgarity and profanity, a pest to themselves, and a nuisance to the 
neighborhood; the domestic establishments of the educated are 
cleanly, and their children neatly clothed, decent in their deport- 
ment, and well instructed. 

Each of these statements might have been put into the form of 
a proposition, and demonstrated by reasoning. But/acts are worth 



1^ 

more than arguments ; and for that reason, I have presented tlie 
subject in this manner. 

It may appear superfluous to say more in proof of the advan- 
tages which society derives from the liberal education of laboring 
men; but I beg your indulgence to the remark, that nearly all the 
inventions which have proved eminently useful, were made by men 
who combined studious habits with practical skill. James Watt, to 
whom the world is indebted for nearly all that is valuable and 
efficient in the steam-engine, though brought up in the occupation 
of mathematical instrument maker, devoted himself assiduously to 
the study of Natural Philosophy and the kindred sciences. Robert 
Fulton, who first applied the power of steam to navigation, while 
actively employed as machin^ist and civil engineer, became deeply 
learned in physics, chemistry, and the higher mathematics. — 
There is another example no less in point: In the year 1784' 
the son of a Massachusetts farmer, partly by the profits of his 
manual labor, and partly by teaching a village school, prepares 
himself for Yale College, in opposition to the wishes of his 
parents. With a resolution which neither poverty nor paterna^ 
resentment can shake, he falters not till he has accomplished the 
regular course of study. After graduating, he engages himself as a 
private tutor with a family in Georgia; but, on arriving in that 
state, he finds the place for which he had contracted, occupied by 
another. Destitute and without resources, he is kindly received 
into the mansion of a lady with whom he had become acquainted 
on the voyage. There, one day he hears a party of gentlemen 
remark, that "till ingenuity should devise some method to facilitate 
the separation of cotton from its seed, it was vain to think of rais- 
ing the article for market." The young man conceives an idea. 
Silently and alor.e, by day and by night, he broods over that 
thought, till by patient mental incubation, it assumes form and con- 
sistency. But the unsubstantial thought must now be wrought out 
into a material shape. The idea must become a thing. Month after 
month, with such tools as he had learned to use in boyhood, and 
others which his genius supplies to his wants, concealed from the 
gaze of men, he toils on. An intellect, matured by culture, pre- 
sides in that cluttered and dusty apartment. The busy head and 
the busy hand work together. Awhile, and it is whispered in the 
community, that a machine is there with which one man can per- 
form the labor of a hundred. The excited populace rush together, 
break open the mysterious room, and before the inventor has 
secured his patent, carry off the cotton gin. A hundred millions of 
dollars are at once added to the value of property in the south ; 



13 

ootton becomes the great staple of the country; tlic price of clo- 
thing for the human race is every where diminished; the world is 
benefitted; and Eli Whitney, though unrewarded, is immortal. 

Such are a few examples from the many which migiit be 
adduced, showmg the advantage of combining study with labor- 
And it may be ^safely asserted, furthermore, that, if a man looks 
only to his pecuniary interests; if his object is "not to live, but to 
g-et a living-;'" there is no occupation or business whatever, in 
which the well educated will not, as a general remark, be more suc_ 
cessful than the poorly educated. The laborious classes are not 
sufficiently impressed with this fact, and hence they are reluctant to 
avail themselves of the means of instruction which are placed 
within their reach. With good schools at their very doors, many 
rear their children in comparative ignorance. The young appren- 
tice or journeyman, instead of devoting his pocket money and his 
leisure to books, too often squanders both in idle amusements, or 
vicious indulgences. The individual who is educated at all, in 
school or out, f^ducates himself; and I hesitate not to say, that if 
every young farmer and mechanic would acquire a taste for read- 
ing, and a habit of thinking, and would employ his hours of leisure 
in the cultivation of his mind, he might become an intelligent man, 
even without an instructor. 

Some years ago, in the town of Worcester, Mass. an appren- 
tice was toiling from morning till night at the bellows and anvil. 
Yet in the eye that looked out from that dingy brow, an observer 
might have seen, that the fires of genius had been kindled in his 
soul. That boy reads. The money which others would have spent 
in folly, he expends in books. The hours which others waste in 
idleness or sleep, he devotes to study. A latin grammar falls into 
his hands. What can a blacksmith's boy, without a teacher, do 
with a latin grammar 1 Will he throw aside his hammer and study 
itl No; he studies it, and still wields his hammer. He becomes of 
age and begins bnsiness for himself; and still he studies. His pro- 
gress is silent and unobserved, for he is unknown and poor. At 
length the rumor reaches the ears of a man of influence, that the 
blacksmith loves books. He sends him a key to the public library, 
and bids him go in and out at will. That key is more precious to 
him than gold; for it unlocks treasures which he deems far more 
valuable than shining dust. Year after year might he be seen in 
that library, poJfring at night over the pages of ancient and modern 
learning. Still, by day, the sound of his hammer is heard in his 
shop. He is none the worse blacksmith, because he is versed in 
fifty languages, and comprehends the profound analy&R of La. 



14 

Place. About the close ot ihe year 1840, a man is seen holding a 
crowded audience wrapt in attention, as with modest air and plea- 
sing eloquence, he pours forth in faultless language, the intellectual 
wealth, which, by years of patient study, he has accumulated. He 
stands before the learned, the rich, the polished of the land, and 
instructs them. The name of the blacksmith has reached the Gover- 
nor of the commonwealth ; the Governor has mentioned him in a 
public address; and men and women are desirous to see and hear 
him. Is he elated and vain] Can he descend from that desk, 
amid plaudits of approbation, and resume the sledge 1 Fear not for 
him. True merit is modest. With cheerful content he retires 
from the gaze of men, to his anvil and his books. 

But there is another and still stronger reason, why the educa- 
tion of the masses of our people should be brought up to a more 
liberal and elevated standard. The masses are the sovereigns. They 
are the fountain of all authority; the lawful possessors of the power 
of which the public officers are but the depositories. Our govern- 
ment is not only the exponent of the public will, but by its very 
nature, it also becomes the instrument of that will whose creature 
it is. But the public will is the resultant of individual wills; and its 
direction and force are determined by the character and intelligence 
of the majority. It may be expected, then, that whatever the great, 
leading characteristics of our people may be, tlie government, like a 
faithful mirror, will reflect them, in their beauty or deformity, to an 
admiring or disgusted world. 

In despotic states, much care is taken that the young Princes 
be properly instructed, to prepare them to discharge the duty of 
jnonarchs. In like manner, it would be wise in us to take heed that 
they, whose suffrages elect our rulers, whose will gives character to 
the administration of affairs, and who are themselves eligible to the 
highest places in the Republic, be qualified by mental discipline, to 
assume the responsibilities and discharge the duties of American 
citizens. 

There is a class of men, found in evei'y section of our country, 
but more numerous in large towns and cities, and among the rude 
population of the frontier states, who, impelled by headlong passion, 
are ever ready to break over the restraints of law. Forgetting that 
the will of the people is the supreme law only when that will is 
legally expressed and legally executed, they hold the atrocious doc- 
trine, that those who make the law are above the law; and that a 
large number may exercise, rashly and violently, the functions 
which a majority, acting deliberately through its constituted organs, 
can alone lawfully exercise. Y^y them, law is shorn of its moral 



15 i 

power, and becomes the sport of violence; force, designed to sus- \ 

tain law, becomes the instrument of its overthrovv; obedience, tiie 

only guaranty of freedom, is scouted as slavish and cowardly; and | 

the courts of justice besieged, to wrest judgment by threats and j 

clamor. Such men are the bone and sinew of mobs, the judges j 

and executioners of lynch-law. Glorious sovereigns these, to 

wield the destinies of a mighty nation, and to impress upon its acts i 

their hue and likeness ! , 

There is another class, less brutal, but more dangerous. They 

are not stolidly ignorant, nor boastfully vulgar. They put on an 

air of pretension, lounge at places of public resort, and talk politics 

with as much assurance as statesmen. Eager to live without work, ^ 

yet too poor to do so ; clamorous for offices, yet incompetent to fill ' 

them; too lazy to study, too well dressed to beg, too proud to toil, ] 

they stand ever ready to become the corrupt instruments of cor- 1 

rupt men, " fit foT treasons, stratagems and spoils." Keen to know ' 

when to crouch and when to insult, — they are devoted worshippers 

of " the star that rules the ascendant," and brave " to kick the dead 

lion." Patriotic as interest prompts, it is surprising how willing 

they are to serve the public. 

They love their country, and like lovers linger ' 

So long as she has cash for them to finger; > 

They serve their country, and, themselves to pay, 
Purloin her gold, pack up, and run away. 

There is still another class, less numerous than the last, but 
more violent and bold. A celebrated Jacobin of the French Revo- i 

lution declared : " It is necessary to form the country anew, to , 

change its ideas, its laws, and its manners ; to change men and 
things, words and names; in a word, to destroy every thing, since 
every thing ought to be r^reated." But the propensities of these ! 

men are still more destructive. They would destroy all, and r^reate 
nothing. Not satisfied with demolishing the framework of society, \ 

they would tear up its foundations. They would have no law, no j 

property, no families, no rights, no wrongs ; but in the ferocious ] 

spirit of radical agrarianism, return to 

" The {jood old rule, the simple plan, 

That he may take who has the power, ! 

That he may keep who can." i 

All these classes of men flourish where ignorance prevails, but 

languish in the light of popular intelligence. If liberty is in danger 

i M from either or all of them, education alone can avert the danger. i 

ffiC^^ They are diseases in thc^politic, which no homcspathy, with its l^/ 

7 ''similia similibus curantur,'' can eradicate. McrraT and political / , 

hydrophobia can never be cured by the virus that caused tbs mad- j 



16 

ness. Popular ignorance and popular vice go hand in hand, leading' 
on to licentiousness and degradation, imbecility and slavery. Both 
must be expelled together, by the combined power of science and 
religion, working to the same end, and producing that elevation of 
the national intellect and morals, in which a good popular education 
consists. 

If we enquire for the cause of the decline and fall of the ancient 
republics, we shall find it in that corruption of public and private 
morals, which is the necessary consequence of popular ignorance. 
Poverty, indeed, may keep even an uninstructed people virtuous, 
hardy, and brave ; but when wealth and luxury increase, the only 
conservative element against corruption, with its attendant effemi- 
nacy and consequent subjugation, is to be sought in the elevation 
of the popular mind. Lycurgus attempted to protect the stern, rude 
virtues of the Lacedemonians, by banishing riches from the State, 
and barring every avenue to luxury. Be ours the nobler task so to 
strengthen the moral and intellectual power of the people — that 
while they enjoy the blessings of wealth, they may escape its 
seductions. In this alone may we hope to secure the permanency 
of our institutions, and find the true dignity and glory of the 
Republic. 

Two paths then are before us as a nation .-—Ignorance and vice, 
intelligence and virtue. If we enter the one, we may run a violent 
and tumultuous career, attract for a while the gaze of an astonished 
world, and terrify mankind at last by the noise of our ruin, and the 
shock of our fall. If we take the other, we shall not win a momen- 
tary, but a lasting admiration ; the foundations of national prosperity 
and individual happiness will be durable as time, strong as truth ; 
our political system will have no insidious venom preying upon the 
springs of life,— no gangrene to be separated by the mutilation of 
the living parts,— no convulsions to distort,— no paralysis to pros- 
trate ; but ail the organs animated by a healthy vitality, moving and 
acting together without jar or discord, like the movements and 
music of the spheres, till our nation shall become " a name and a 
praise in the whole earth." 



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